


Boxley

by Watergirl1968



Series: Voices In The Bone [3]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Blood, Eremin - Freeform, Gore, Injury, M/M, Vomit, voices in the bone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 16:07:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4793870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Watergirl1968/pseuds/Watergirl1968
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This short fic details the incident at Boxley, which forms part of the Voices in the Bone story arc. </p><p>This content was missing from the eremin archive before, strictly speaking, as it was embedded within Red Molly's Reach, which is a rivarmin fic.</p><p>I realized later that eremin shippers might be missing this part of the story, so I've taken only the relevant passages and put them together here....and now the story is complete!</p><p>More to come for Voices in the Bone in fall and winter 2015!! Thank you for having a look!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Boxley Village, Maria Territory_   
_New Humanity, Year 856_

Reclaiming the village of Boxley was ambitious. It was the second time that humans had attempted a new wall-and-pit system to keep the titans out and repossess what was theirs.

Boxley's village walls were about halfway completed. The village had a mill, which could be pressed into service to produce flour, or lumber. It was just south of first newly-walled-in plot of land with it's reclaimed river system, known as the 'blister', which had been completed the previous autumn.

Levi's squad and two auxiliary units arrived at the Boxley construction project at sun-up one morning in early spring, 856. The engineering crews and their wagons followed shortly thereafter, once the flare went up signalling the all clear.

The river was swollen and brown; the air was heavy with the scent of thawing turf and morning fires. Trees were knobby with the first buds of spring. There was birdsong, which suddenly stilled.

The attack came at 8:32 a.m., from the east. Later reports identified between twelve and twenty titans; three were over five metres in height, with slow, random movements. The rest were approximately three metres, with long arms, excessively wide mouths, sharp teeth and clawed hands. They moved quickly and of one accord, and their goal was to obliterate the humans that had dared to remake the village of Boxley. This new titan type, the Survey Corps would later dub 'manglers'.

Levi had spent the winter working with his squad. His time spent retraining Armin as a combat soldier had given him pause for thought. He introduced new weapons to his team. One of these was a retractable, two-headed pike. The other was a grappling hook. The horses were fitted with this new gear. And thus, humanity's strongest soldier became the leader of new humanity's first light-armoured cavalry unit.

By the time a red flare went up at 8:47, a crew of six engineers and three horses had fallen to the titans. That left sixty-eight civilians and their horses and donkeys to evacuate. Levi split his squad. One unit, containing Lance Corporal Marco Bott, Eren Jaeger and Sasha Blouse was tasked with herding the engineers and the animals back inside Wall Rose. The second unit, led by Levi Rivaille and containing Mikasa Ackerman and most of the auxiliary forces, engaged the titans from the northeast, defending the blister and the river. The third unit, led by Recon Sergeant Jean Kirschstein and containing Armin Arlert and Connie Springer, tried to draw the titans south, luring them away from the civilians, through Boxley proper and toward the river bridge, where it was hoped they might be halted and pinched by Levi's large force from the rear.

Jean Kirschstein's recon map noted a single, narrow bridge spanning the river, just wide enough for the horses to cross single file, but too narrow for the pursuing titans to cross without being cut down. He urged his large brown mount, Joker, on hard toward the river. These smaller, more vicious titans also seemed to be smarter; they took the shortest routes in pursuit of Jean's fleeing unit, blocking alleyways, smashing obstacles. Several times, the unit had to double back and change course.

At 9:48, all of the titans, seemingly of one mind, turned to follow Jean's unit toward the river.

At 9:56, Jean Kirschstein discovered that Boxley Bridge had been swept away, destroyed by the overflowing spring river and there was no crossing.

"Fuck!" he shouted, hauling on the reins to slow Joker.  _"Fuck!!"_

Armin, astride Caesar, was hard on his heels. Armin saw the rotted posts sticking out of the raging brown water. His eyes flashed up and down the bank, seeing no other options. Behind them, the titans were shambling through the narrow village streets and emerging onto the riverbank. Jean knew he could not meet the titans on the open floodplain and survive.

The big Sergeant wheeled Joker around, sent up a red flare and bellowed,  _"Charge!"_  leading a wedge formation straight at the monsters and back into the village streets.

Jean looked for a clear street to send the horses northwest, back toward Marco and Sasha's unit. When he found it, he issued the command, "Fly!" and the force under his command took to the skies with a hiss of wires, employing manoeuvre gear.

Levi had trained Armin Arlert well. Nothing existed for Armin except the moment in which he found himself. He flew through the street and the titans' glassy, yellow eyes followed him. Their clawed hands snatched at him. To his alarm, they seemed to…anticipate him like an adversary, rather than exhibiting the random, predatory behaviour he was accustomed to. To Armin's right, an auxiliary soldier leapt behind her titan quarry for a strike. Her blade went wide, and the mangler titan attacked her horse, which went down screaming.

"Kiyaa - git!! Get out of here, boy!" Armin gave the command to Caesar.  _Retreat and regroup._  Caesar wheeled to his left, galloping west. Armin's slender form sheared toward a rooftop, touched only briefly, then he launched himself at the exposed neck of a titan. His blade hit clean, bit through and he heard tendons snap, hot gore splashing up at him.

"Thank the flaming fucking Walls..you can kill these things," he muttered. Where was Levi's unit?

He heard a scream to his left. One of the monsters had Jean in its hand and was slamming him against a wall. "No!" Armin leapt onto its shoulder. "Hang on, Kirsch!"

The titan could smell him. Sweet, intrepid, young, small. It dropped Kirschstein like a broken toy and plucked Armin up, attempting to shove him into it's gaping mouth.  _Wait…wait…._ Armin told himself. He didn't panic. And at precisely the right moment, he jammed his longpike into the monster's gums, just behind its front teeth. It screamed and tried to close its mouth, driving the pike's other sharp end into its bottom palate and wedging its mouth open.

The beast shook its head. Armin skidded into its row of teeth, his lower back and thigh scraping hard against the fangs. He launched his grapple, throttled the gas and escaped, sprawling, on a rooftop.

Jean had disappeared somewhere in the street beneath him. Horses screamed. The manglers pounded on the building walls, clawing for the tiny humans. Then, the sky darkened, and a roar was heard, above the rushing of the river. The ground shook. The air smelled of steam, flesh and a strange, molten odour which could only mean one thing: Eren Jaeger had shifted into titan form.

Armin tried to stand; his back and right thigh felt red-hot. Looking down, he realized he'd left a bloody imprint on the tile roof where he'd landed.

Down below, people were hollering. Smoke was billowing. Armin hobbled along the roof edge, eyeing the streets. The horses were all gone. They'd obeyed the retreat command. Except for one. Armin dropped to his knees.

"Levi," he called weakly,  _"Oh, Levi…"_

Gunshot.

Silence.


	2. Chapter 2

The official report on the Boxley conflict would state that nine human lives were lost, along with eleven horses.The Survey Corps was credited with successful evasive action, due in large part to the bravery of Recon Sergeant Jean Kirschstein who led the charge against the titans at the riverbank, forcing them left and right, into the pincers that Captain Levi Rivaille had deployed. When six of the titans doubled back north to attack the civilian line, they were dispatched by titan-shifted Eren Jaeger, who was then able to defend the gate until all were within Wall Rose. Sixty-eight lives were saved. 

 2:32 p.m.:

  _"Aaaarlert…you little shit!!"_  Jean Kirschstein bellowed. "Get over here!" Three medics attended Jean, who was strapped to a table in the surgery, angled at forty-five degrees. The big Sergeant was naked from the waist up, covered in a sheen of sweat, eyes bright with pain. His right arm hung at a grotesque angle from a dislocated shoulder.

Armin hobbled through the busy infirmary and into the surgery. He knew he shouldn't be there; he was still covered in filth from the skirmish, including dark, foul-smelling smears from the mangler-type titan's mouth. His uniform was stuck to his leg and his back, but he wouldn't leave Eren's bedside. Not until the fever-hot skin began to cool, and the horrid stump where his right arm used to be began to pulse and reshape. 

Jean was panting, sandy hair plastered to his forehead. He grinned, reaching up with his left hand to grasp Armin's. "You…." he choked through gritted teeth, "You stupid, stupid little  _fucktard,"_  he squeezed Armin's hand, "You kept me on this miserable earth, the least you can do is talk to me while these bastards pop my shoulder back in."

Armin gave Jean a little smile, squeezing the big fist back. "You're welcome," he said.

The doctors, having satisfied themselves as to Jean's position, slipped a brace beneath his back and extended his arm slowly.

"Aaaahhh…Armin…is everyone back yet?"

"No. Mikasa and Levi are still out. And Marco, obviously. Sasha is down at the stables,"

Jean let out a profanity-laced scream. His shoulder snapped back into it's socket. "Fuck!  _Fuck you,_  Arlert! You're the one going to be jacking me off until this heals."

__________

Eren opened his eyes. The world still floated before him as if he were inside a fishbowl; distorted, hazy, green-and-red-tinted. He was still experiencing the hot, static rushes which happened when he titan-shifted to that place he could only describe as  _'between'_. He wasn't fully present yet. He closed his eyes.

"Eren?"

"Hmmm?"

"How do you feel? Are you alrig–" the question was cut off by the sound of retching into a bucket.

Eren forced his eyes open. The ceiling swam, bluegreen; the colour the ocean probably was. Armin was there, shimmering in an energy field, his sweetness palpable and intense to Eren in his current state. "Pixie…you look like you're made of  _stars_ …"

Armin laughed, spitting into the bucket in his lap, wiping his filthy face. His blue eyes looked shock-bright, peering through the grime. He smelled fetid.

"Oh, do I really? Well you've set the bar fairly low then. I have to go hose off…I just needed to see that you were  _oh_ …" he bent over the bucket again. Eren reached up weakly, to hold back the blond hair, only to find he had no hand with which to do it. He snorted.

"W-Why are you sick?"

"Dunno. Nerves." Armin eyed the stump Eren was waving. "Doesn't that  _scare_  you?" he asked softly.

"It's not gone," Eren replied woozily. "I can see it. I can see my entire body.  _You_  just can't see it. It's not…not  _back_ yet. I see all kinds of things when I shift. Is - is everyone alright?"

"Yes," uncertainly. Then: "No. No. Levi…"

_"Levi what?"_

"Don't say anything until the rest return. Levi will be coming. To see Jean."

"Why, Armin?"

"Oh Eren," Armin whispered, tears filling his eyes. "I can't keep it from you, but you mustn't say anything yet…we gave the horses the retreat command when we got into the streets. But Jean got grabbed up by a titan and…and Joker wouldn't retreat…he wouldn't leave Jean..he just ran back and forth. I tried to call him off, and Caesar even tried to herd him, but Jean has had Joker from a colt, so he wouldn't  _go_ …" Armin squeezed his eyes shut, his back to the surgery where Jean was being fitted with a sling.

Eren's eyesight was clearing. "Joker?" he repeated.

"Ssshh. There was nothing anyone could do, Eren. He was stomped so badly. He kept lifting his head, looking for Jean, but Jean was unconscious. Levi…" Armin shuddered, wiping his mouth on his sleeve, "Levi knelt down and petted his head. He spoke to Joker. Levi...he pulled the trigger from behind, so Joker couldn't see…"

"Joker?" Eren repeated softly. Armin gritted his teeth, ignoring the sobs caught in his throat.

"Attention!" was heard at the door. The bedraggled Corps stood for their Captain. Armin struggled to stand, another wave of nausea and dizziness assaulting him. Jean came out of the surgery. He smiled with relief to see Lance Corporal Bott enter, followed by Mikasa Ackerman. Then his smile faded.

Captain Rivaille entered. He had come straight from the field, his green cloak in ribbons, shredded by the claws of some monster. In his hand, he held a leather horse bridle. A hush fell.

Levi approached Jean Kirschstein, who stood tall, maintaining the best salute he could manage with his left arm, eyes forward. Levi stopped in front of Jean, returning salute. He slowly placed the bridle into Jean's trembling hand.

"Sergeant, I am sorry."

"Thank you, sir," Jean snapped off, voice threatening to break. 

"At ease," Levi said quietly. "I will be back soon," he turned and made his way toward the door.

Jean's eyes stared vacantly ahead. He brought his hand up, crushing the bridle to his chest. This wasn't happening…could not be happening. Not on a construction patrol. Not today. Not to his Joker. "Oh no, buddy," he squeezed the bridle in his fist, dissolving into tears.  _"Oh buddy, why?…Why?…"_

Levi left the infirmary, beckoning Armin to follow. Outside, he turned, keen eyes looking Armin up and down. The boy was filthy, covered in all manner of things, smelling of vomit and decaying titan, but alive. He faced Levi, hard-faced. "I stuck that pike right in its fucking mouth, boss, just like we drilled."

Levi grabbed the slender shoulders, feral grey eyes boring into Armin's, then closing as he exhaled in relief. "I know you did. You kept your head today, p'tit. You should be dead and so should Jean. But you are alive..alive and disgustingly dirty, and you reek." 

Then, at complete odds with his aversion to both filth and demonstrations, Levi grabbed Armin, holding him in a crushing embrace. "I'm not ready to lose you yet, brat."

"Don't worry about me, boss," Armin wheezed, "I'm fine, I…poor Kirsch…"

Levi felt a sudden deadweight as Armin Arlert collapsed in his arms, eyes rolling back white in his head and foam bubbling from his lips. Levi shouted into the infirmary for the medics.

__________

Levi had never felt as utterly helpless as he did during the twenty minutes that followed. Armin was brought into the surgery and laid on his side, as per seizure protocols. His eyes bulged glassily, his small body twitching and shuddering. Levi tried to hold his head still to prevent him from choking. He vomited again, inky black. Within minutes, Chief Science Officer Zoe Hanji arrived and assumed control of the infirmary. The surgeon, Heloise Nerot, spoke to Zoe in quick, low tones.

Eren, Mikasa, and then Commander Smith, appeared in the doorway. When the seizure subsided, quick hands cut Armin's clothes from his small frame, revealing ugly, black boils on his back and thigh where the mangler titan had bitten him. 

When the medics attempted to wash him, unaccountably he began to scream, begging forlornly to Levi to make them stop. "Please _, Levi!_ " he shrieked, _"Please!"_  and he lapsed into a tongue that Eren had certainly never heard. He swore and begged and sobbed. His small wrists and ankles were grabbed and pinioned to the table. Armin screamed, arcing off the table until Hanji jabbed a syringe into his neck.

Eren was crying now, begging Zoe not to hurt Armin, reaching out vainly with his half-formed right hand. Erwin gently restrained Eren, looking pointedly at Levi Rivaille and wondering how it was that Armin had come to scream and curse and cry in ancient Hebrew.

__________

"Spit," Zoe Hanji told Eren, handing him a glass receptacle. Eren did.

"More. Honestly, I need as much gob as you've got," Zoe told him.

Zoe Hanji had isolated the type of bite Armin Arlert had received, and, based on her lab work with Eren, two other shifters and a number of less-than-willing titan specimens, she would be able to construct a serum which would reverse the infection. But she needed titan spit. A lot of it.

Armin had quieted. He breathed shallowly, shivering. They had lit the braziers in the infirmary. It was impossible to cover Armin, as the blankets stuck to the ugly, weeping sores.

Levi remained by his side while Eren was busy in the lab with Hanji.  

All he wanted was for Armin to open his eyes; those sweet bluebell eyes that had become adult eyes; focused, hardened, determined. Just as Eren could now open and read any volume from Erwin's library with confidence, so Armin could face Levi in combat drills. In the trees, on the riverbank, in dark alleyways, in the pouring rain. With knife, sword, pike, or barehanded. 

"Please, p'tit," he said quietly, "Please. We aren't finished."

__________

_Evening_

"Crying…someone's crying…" Armin murmured. His mouth felt hideous, dry and thick.

"Nobody's crying," Levi said flatly, dashing at his eyes.

Armin's eyes fluttered open, stinging, crusty.

"Boss," he croaked.

Levi held Armin's head up, nudging a glass of water to his lips. "Try,"

Armin sipped obediently. "I'm hot," he said. "Where's Eren?"

"He is having his restorative sleep, from shifting, right now. You tired him out. And everybody else, too."

"I got sick," Armin whispered tearfully.

"You're going to get better now. Hush, p'tit. I am here."

Levi stroked Armin's blond hair, soothing him. He bent his head, kissing the heated brow.

Then, in the quiet of the dark, empty sickroom, he began to sing softly.

It was the saddest, most beautiful tune Armin had ever heard.

 


End file.
